New in the Demo: the Umbrel, the Grimalkin, the Pugilist and the Thief
Ashburrow · published
New in the Demo
Seven of Ashburrow's ten races and seven of its eight classes can now be played in the free demo, and the Mesmerist is the only class held back for the full game. A demo character also climbs two levels further, to level 10.
Two new races
Umbrel. Elves of the dark, and the hardest thing in Ashburrow to see coming. While sneaking, an Umbrel gets a fifth closer to a creature that is facing them before it notices. Keen night vision, high Agility and Dexterity, and some resistance to magic and poison. Grimalkin. Cat-folk, about 1.2 metres tall and the most agile race in the game. They are the only race with uncanny night vision, so an unlit tunnel is less dark to a Grimalkin than to anyone else. And they purr: sit down to rest within three meters of a resting Grimalkin and your health comes back half again as fast.
Two new classes
Pugilist. The lightest armor of any class and the most to do about it. A Pugilist kicks from the first fight, a heavy boot off the weapon's timer, and dodges and fights with the off hand from level 1. They start with a quarterstaff, and no blade past a dagger is theirs. Only a Pugilist can learn:
Play Dead. Drop as though dead, and everything hunting you loses interest. Each creature rolls for itself, so sometimes three wander off and the fourth is still standing over you. Its tome comes off Skarn the Gaoler, behind the stone door in the east barracks, and it needs Red Mist first, whose tome Hrelga the Cook carries at the west camp.
Thief. Creeps, hides, and hits hardest from behind. A Thief sneaks from level 1: you are unseen at any range. Hide and Dodge come at 2. At 5 comes Blindside: a blow from outside a creature's facing lands for a quarter more, rising toward double as the skill climbs. Parry at 6, two attacks a swing at 8, the off hand at 9. A Thief can be a Human, an Irbis, a Bramblin, an Umbrel or a Grimalkin in the demo, and an Irbis Thief stepping out of a sneak also gets its race's first blow.
The demo climbs to level 10
A Pugilist reads Play Dead at 9. Its tome could always drop in the demo, and could never be read.
A Hunter takes the off hand and Parry at 9, and two attacks a swing, Tinderflame and Hobble at 10.
Every caster's book gains a rung at 10: Deep Mending for a Lightbearer or a Grovekeeper, Flame Spear for a Magister.
The full game still goes to 25. Of the six roads a run can begin on, the demo still opens three.
Also since the guard update
Creatures fight with patterns. Nineteen kinds now double-strike, lunge at you when you step out of reach, or feint and then swing for real. The starter creatures do not.
Knocked off balance. A heavy blow caught with your guard down makes you reel for half a second, losing your swing or your cast. A heavy blow also commits now: step out of reach and it misses.
Three kinds of warning. A ring for a blow, a violet double ring for a spell, and red rings on the floor for a sweep, each with its own sound.
Resistances. Magic, fire, cold, poison and disease, on your stat block. Every race resists something, some shields do, and there are three new wards.
Venom. From the meadow snake up to Bannoch, venomous creatures poison you when a blow lands, so a parry, a dodge or a timed guard keeps it out. Each cure now cures its own kind.
Players poison too. Hunters coat their weapons and arrows, and a Grovekeeper's thorn mantles poison whatever strikes them.
More things break. Sacks, stools, bottles, cages, cauldrons, bone piles, the clan's effigies and the purple meadow flowers all pay a little gold, more the deeper you are. Breaking things is loud, and idle creatures come to look.
Controller: the bumpers move between your screens, holding the left bumper sprints, and holding an ability button opens its picker.
Post it in the discussions here. I read all of it.
Try them yourself
Play the free demo on Steam, and if this is your kind of descent, wishlist Ashburrow to hear when the full game launches. Thank you for playing.